Update on Oculus Technology, Shipping Details

When we launched our Kickstarter campaign in August, we hoped to sell a few hundred kits to game developers and virtual reality enthusiasts around the world. Instead, we were blown away by the overwhelming response from a community of almost 10,000 backers, who raised nearly $2.5 million dollars to help us develop the Oculus Rift.

Designing, sourcing, and manufacturing thousands of developer kits is no small feat. Since our Kickstarter, we’ve been up against the wall, working around the clock to produce and distribute over 7,500 units in just 4 short, crazy months. We’ve had to modify our original design for mass-manufacturing and, at the same time, balance additional features with our tight schedule.

We wanted to have the developer kits to all our backers before the holidays; but more than that, we want to ship the best Oculus Rift developer kit possible. In order to accommodate the required changes, new features, and manufacturing duration, we had to shift our ship date.

We’re happy to be able to finally announce that the Oculus Rift developer kits will begin shipping in March 2013.

We want to thank everyone for their patience and support. Know that we’re pouring our hearts into this project.

We’d like to share a few details about why we’ve pushed the estimated delivery and what we’ve done behind the scenes to improve the Rift since our Kickstarter’s launch.

Manufacturing 7,500 Developer Kits

The majority of the remaining work is now in the hands of our manufacturer, who’s currently making the injection mold tooling used to create the Rift's plastic shell (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injection_molding if you’re interested in learning more). We waited to make an official announcement until we had a firm schedule from our manufacturer.

All together, preparing the factory for mass production of a product like the Rift takes approximately 90 days and the factory can’t begin until design and feature set has been locked down. Our manufacturer is already underway with the first tooling (T1), which takes roughly 50-70 days. Once the primary tooling is complete, we’ll do a series of pilot runs for minor tweaks and adjustments before mass production. Simultaneously, we’ll be testing and certifying the device for public use.

If you’re interested in learning more about why tooling a plastic product like the Rift can take up to 70 days, check out this 5 minute video from the Discovery Channel on how plastic injection molds are made: “How It’s Made: Injection Molds”.

Once the tooling has been finalized and the factory is full throttle with production, we’ll be able to produce over 500 developer kits each day. We’re looking forward to having that sort of volume rolling out to the developers everywhere.

We’ll be shipping out the developer kits in the same order as the Kickstarter pledges were received (first come, first served). Based on this current schedule, the goal is to ship the majority of the rewards by mid-March. We may not have all 7,500 kits in the first shipment, but we’ll continue shipping out kits as soon as they arrive. We’re estimating that we can have all the rewards sent out by mid-April. Any pre-orders taken post-Kickstarter (through www.oculusvr.com/preorder/) are expected to ship in late April 2013, after we’ve delivered all the Kickstarter rewards.

Once we’ve put your rewards in the mail, US residents should expect to receive them within 5-7 business days and international backers should receive theirs in 2-3 weeks, depending on the destination.

Finding the Right Display

One of the toughest challenges was finding the right display for mass production. Many of you already know that the Oculus Rift prototypes we’ve been showing use a 5.6’’ LCD. While not perfect, it’s been sufficient for early research and development, including the work John Carmack did with DOOM 3: BFG Edition. Unfortunately, production of that display was recently discontinued, a fact we learned after trying to source (buy in bulk) enough to meet the incredible response from the developer community.

When we set out to find a new display, there were a number of key factors to consider for the best experience. The ideal screen would have a refresh rate of least 60hz, a resolution of 720p or better, a low response time, and a viewing area between 5.5’’ and 7’’ diagonally.

We tested every available (non-proprietary) display we could get our hands on. Surprisingly, there aren’t many available screens in a 5.5’’ – 7’’ form factor that meet our requirements.

Ultimately, we selected a modern, 1280x800 7’’ display for the developer kit. The bright side is that the new display beats the old display in almost every key area including response time, switching time, contrast, and color quality. The improved switching time of the panel actually alleviates most of the motion blur people saw in earlier prototype demos. The downside to our new 7’’ is the weight differential: approximately 30g more than the 5.6’’.

A New Sensor Designed for VR

The original Oculus Rift prototypes used an off-the-shelf sensor from one of the leading sensor vendors in the country. While the original sensor was high quality, we made the decision to develop our own 9DOF motion sensor that excels in VR-critical areas. These new sensors should be part of the developer kits shipping in March.

The new Oculus sensor supports a refresh rate of up to 1000hz, which is several times faster than the previous sensor. In addition to the accelerometer and gyroscope, it also includes a magnetometer, which opens new doors in terms of sensor data and head-tracking. The data coming from the new sensor will be accessible using the Oculus SDK in easy to manipulate formats (quaternion, matrix, Euler angles). The raw sensor data is also available for those that want to do the math themselves.

Building a new motion sensor is a major undertaking. There are plenty of challenges we’re working on, particularly sensor calibration and multi-platform driver development, but we’re confident the new sensor will be worth the engineering effort in the long run and we’re happy with the results thus far.

Latest Working Prototypes from Factory

This is a fully functional prototype of the Rift developer kit. The cable shown here is similar in width and weight to the actual 6ft custom cable used for the developer kits, which was designed specifically for the Rift.

Here’s a snapshot of the latest control box model for the headset. This little guy combines the video, USB, and power lines into the single, custom cable running to the headset. This helps reduce weight and extra cabling from the Rift.

Please understand that the designs above are subject to change; though you can expect these to be very close to the final versions.

3D Engine Integrations

The Unreal Engine 3 and Unity integrations are coming together well. The Unreal integration is in a completely playable/usable state, including the Unreal Tournament 3 sample game which is now a great Oculus-ready example for developers.

The Unity integration is getting underway with the latest Oculus SDK codebase. We’ll post another update in the near future with footage of Oculus VR inside Unity.

We’re working closely with Epic and Unity on integrating support for the Oculus Rift in the free versions of their engines and will keep the community posted on the progress.

Oculus Developer Center Coming

We’re in the process of bringing the Oculus Developer Center online. The Developer Center will have the latest Oculus SDK, engine integrations, official forums, support system, and ways to send hardware/software feedback directly to the Oculus engineering team.

All developers will be invited to join the Developer Center and start discussing Rift development before the kits begin shipping.

Developer Kits, Consumer Rifts, and Virtual Reality

We’re planning a handful of Kickstarter updates dedicated to more detailed information regarding the sensor, the screen, the display controller, and the headset itself. These should be posted over the next few weeks.

Plans for the consumer version of the Oculus Rift are already underway. Due to time constraints for the developer kit, we had to push several exciting features to the consumer version. We’ll continue to keep everyone posted on our progress as we move from research and development into confirmed features.

We’re also counting on you, the community, to help us shape the future of VR and the Oculus Rift. We hope you’re as excited as we are!

Comments

I did look back at the original kickstarter page and it did indeed say "estimated delivery". So I take what I said back, a 3 month delay is not the end of the world, and Im still enthusiastic about the dev kit.

I actually hope MS/Sony/Apple invests in your vision. Because I think that's the path of least resistance towards mass market adoption. And I don't expect an apology where none is needed. It is implicit that there will be delays and in all likelihood there'll be more before launch of the consumer version. There will always be unforeseen hurtles to jump. (TANGENT!!!) Wouldn't it be cool if Nightmare on Elm St was brought to the Rift and you had a VR Freddy Kruger chasing your ass though an open world dreamscape!!

I dont think I ever expected this to ship in december, but I'm glad you guys issued an apology in the comments section. That said, not everyone reads the comment section, but all backers get updates. You guys really should issue an apology on the next update as well (maybe even a update specifically for that). Pretty much everyone on this board is rooting for your team, and is quite understanding of the delay.

For my part, I signed up for the dev kit with full expectation that the schedule would slip. Once it went from a few hundred to thousands of kits, you are in a different ballpark. Maybe you could get there with 3D printing, but going for a full production run is not a bad choice. It slows it down, but also improves the quality.

Thanks for the tidbit about the over the top strap. This is easily my biggest concern. You cannot play 4 hours of games with this much weight attached with a compression strap. The actual weight of the device doesn't matter, even something as light as NVidia 3D Vision glasses become noticeable after a few hours.

From my limited research, the key is to distribute the weight on the top of your head. As long as we can get some pressure off the bridge of the nose, it will be viable. The ideal setup would be to have it just be snug, not trying to hold the weight, where the neck and spine are holding the gravitational pressure.

I'll be keenly interested in how well the over-the-head strap alleviates the pressure.

Also, thanks for the feedback. Please keep giving us updates, keep us in the loop. The only bad part is missing the schedule at the last minute, and fessing up then. It's always better to set expectations as you go along. It's very corporate and the lawyers love the idea of never saying anything- but the way to engender good will is to be open and honest.

Best of luck, and I'm really looking forward to doing some development. If the SDK is ready in any form before the hardware, I'd be very interested in getting earlier seeds of that so that I can set up for development, read any documentation, and start understanding the nuances.

A three month delay, one week before proposed delivery. What impact, do you think, this asymmetrical communication will have on the validity of the Kickstarter concept? Is it possible to offer developers the SDK with an emulator?

I had assumed that the tooling had been done 90 days ago, so next time a bit more current reporting on the status, please(also a bit disappointed that sensor, display choice & shell all were under development during the time it would have had to been in production to meet the date..).

Superbacker

@Nate - Thanks for the update and replies! A little bit disappointed that it sounds like some of the awesome features are being saved for the consumer version, but let's do our best to make it as amazing as possible. As for the vision issue, I buy small glasses so I can shove them in my motorcycle helmet/shooting goggles/chemical safety equipment. If that's no good, I'll just roleplay a poor bloke who's lost his glasses, 'cause, you know, stuff happens. We're expecting great things from the Oculus team in 2013!

=[ Christmas is canceled. :::: in low moaning nightmare before christmas voice :::: Seriously though, thank you for going the extra mile to make this quality! We here at Galactavision(TM) are already developing a game that we feel will take advantage of the Oculus's awesomeness. What is the best way to contact Palmer as to talk about our plans for the future?

@Gavin Greenwalt & Sangster- You’re both right. The way it’s set up for this demo, looking, aiming and turning are all linked, so the right analog stick also alters the view. Even though they’re both affecting the same control, subjectively it feels like the headtracking turns your head (limited range), while the right analog stick turns your body (unlimited range).

If I want to glance left, I turn my head. If I want to spin around, I use the right analog stick, and turn my head in the same direction just out of habit. It’s all surprisingly natural in practice.

Ultimately, the headtracking is just another input variable, and we’re not trying to force any specific behavior in the gameplay. It’s up to developers to explore whichever control setup works best for their games.

@SaltyBrains - The majority of my field of view is being crammed into half the width of that computer monitor, so what you’re seeing isn’t exactly representative of the amount of motion (1:1) I’m getting from behind the Rift. The scaling is configurable, and it will be up to developers to determine how much (or little) gain they want in their control setup. We’d recommend sticking close to 1:1, otherwise things can get a little disorienting.

Thanks for the answers Palmer. Do you think it is feasible to arrange some cable support for the belt equipped control box scenario so that cables are durable to attach without fear of breaking the connectors / loose cables during use? Either DIY to open it and mount something on the cover where to fix the cables, or some kind of mounting sockets on the cover for cable tie or such.

Regarding head tracking concerns; it seems in the video he's using the right stick for aiming, since head movements only slightly alter the direction of his weapon but right thumb movements are evident when the weapon moves more noticeably.

I suspect what we see on his monitor is not what he sees through the Oculus.

And Palmer, thanks for your great work in delivering something most of us have waited decades for. We can wait a little longer and we appreciate you take the time to deliver the best product possible within what is actually a very short time-frame.

@Oculus, thanks for all the comments. Everyone is just really impatient :) Can't wait to try Hawken with this myself tbh. Work fast boys ! My weak little heart cannot take another decade long wait for this VR thing to happen :)

“Will the March dev kits have any support for vision correction or is that still only for the consumer release?”
@Jeffery – Vision correction will be supported for the consumer version, though it’s unlikely for the developer kits. Sorry!

“Will there be any way to start developing for Unity before the dev kit release? A stubbed out "simulation" driver perhaps?”
@Jeffery – You can start developing your VR project in Unity now and add Oculus Rift support once the SDK is released. This is how the Unreal Sample Game integration was done and it will be similar for Unity projects (relatively out-of-the-box integration to turn on Oculus integration).

“Unity has just released Unity4, you mention 3 in your post. Can we assume that the Unity integration will work with whatever the current version of Unity is at the time of release?”
@Jeffery – Yep-- We’re planning on integrating with Unity 4. I believe you were referring to the mention of Unreal Engine 3 in the update.

“Hey guys, I'm gonna have to change my shipping address based on this update - is that possible?”
@Max – Just shoot an email to support@oculusvr.com and we’ll be more than happy to help update your shipping address.

“Deeply appreciate the update guys, thank you so much. Keep them coming! :)”
@Martin – Thanks! We’re working on more information for everyone soon; just had to finalize our manufacturing first.

“1) can the oculus display "standard SBS" video stream ? (I see in the unreal integration teaser that the pictures are slightly cropped near the corners)
(2) what kind of video input does the oculus is planned to have ? (hdmi ? composite ? kinda-usb-ish ? )”
@Cyril – Take a look at the FAQ on our website (http://www.oculusvr.com/faq/) for detailed answers to these questions.

“Question: Wasn't it possible to go directly for the 5.6" 1080P displays that LG has?”
@Thomas – There are a handful of companies with 5.5’’-7’’ 1080p displays but they’re either proprietary (exclusive and unavailable to Oculus) or they haven’t yet entered mass production.

“Is the FoV improved, considering that you now have a bigger panel? I'm particularly interested in the new horizontal view, considering a FoV exceeding 100 degrees would add to the immersion considerably.”
@Jannever – Yes, the field of view is slightly improved, but it’s the difference is only a few degrees, which isn’t particularly noticeable to the average user.

“I am a student and I really need the Oculus for my current project for my BA-Thesis. This is my final term and now it is delayed not just for a few weeks... “
@Patrick – We sincerely apologize! We’re doing everything we can to expedite the manufacturing process without compromising the quality of the device.

“Looking at that video it looks like the gun tracks with the head. Wouldn't it make more sense for the crosshair/gun to be centered to body space and let the head drive a look-around from a centered and mouse/controller oriented middle?”
@Gavin – It really depends on the game and the other input’s the player is using. For the Unreal Sample Game, keeping the gun tracked to the head and using the right stick to rotate the player horizontally makes for relatively intuitive navigation. For a racing/flight simulator, the head-tracking is relative to a fixed reference point and the other inputs (mouse/keyboard) would probably change the direction of the vehicle.

“What about the DIY-KIT?
@Benjamin – (From my other comment on the Project Comments page) We're still working out the details around the Unassembled Kits and we'll keep those backers posted on progress. We're working hard to get those kits out as quickly as possible. We can't guarantee anything today except that we'll make sure unassembled kit backers are happy with the way it all shakes out.

“Keep up the good work.”
@Thomas – Appreciate it!

“Appreciate you showing the production timeline, good transparency for backers “
@Martin – Our pleasure. Thanks for reading!

“How did you ever think that the original dates were possible?”
@David – Even if we sourced a few thousand units with the original design, we were confident it was possible, albeit slightly rushed, to ship before December. As soon as it became clear we would be building 5,000+, we had to re-evaluate various aspects of the design (detailed in the update) and work with the factory to define a new timeline. All of that took us longer than expected, but we didn’t know with certainty whether we would be early, on-time, or late until recently.

“Are you saying that the decision has been made to put it into the free versions and now it's just a matter of effort to get it in? Or is the free Vs Pro versions integration still iffy because it might not be technically possible, and it needs to be investigated first?”
@Modeus – If we aren't collaborating with Epic and Unity, the Unreal and Unity integrations would require the professional versions due to the limitations of the free versions. Regardless, we are talking with Epic and Unity about integrating support directly into the engine so the pro version isn’t required. There aren’t any technical roadblocks (as you can see from our Unreal Integration Teaser) and know that supporting the free versions of these engines is a priority.

“Why don't just send to for example european people directly from china? or use space in a small warehouse and then send from europe?”
@Victor – We may send a handful of units directly from the warehouse, but we have so many different reward combinations (including posters/t-shirts being made in the US, signed rewards, etc…), having all our logistics run out of a single warehouse makes managing our distribution easier.

“What happened to the concept picture you had ??”
@Sami – The focus is on delivering a great developer kit. The original concept from the Kickstarter video would have engineering flaws we decided to avoid in favor of raw functionality. Whether you love/hate the current design, we’ll have a different design for the consumer version.

“Now you say you're "happy to be able to finally announce that it will begin shipping in March 2013". Shouldn't you rather apologize for the delay?“
@Romain – I completely understand that sentiment. We do apologize, sincerely, and we appreciate everyone’s patience. Obviously, we want the kits out to everyone as fast as possible. We’re “happy” to finally have a firm date that we can share, rather than having no date at all.

“From the functional prototype, looks like pupillary distance isn't adjustable? Was this an issue in testing?”
@Jason - The pupillary distance can be adjusted in software.

“…how much space is there in the device for glasses? The head-on picture is a bit difficult to gauge depth.”
@Jin – There isn’t much space at all—The developer kit isn’t designed for glasses. For the best experience, your eyes need to be as close to the lenses as possible or the FOV is drastically reduced. We’re working on a solution that allows users with poor eyesight to use the Rift without contacts/glasses.

“Also, can you ship it as a gift.”
@Stefan – We can’t ship the developer kits as a gift. Most countries impose very strict regulations on gifts (eg. must be an item in which no money was passed between gifter/giftee, item value less than $50). If we did declare it as a gift, it most customs offices will force the recipient to provide more information, pay duties and VAT, and delay its delivery.

“Hope you guys at Oculus pay heed to the needs of those of your users that have bad eyesight and need glasses - those of us with nearsightedness are probably in the clear, but those with farsightedness might require room for their glasses”

@Zael – We’re working on a solution for this. Also, it’s actually the other way around: far sighted people will be fine since the optics are collimated at infinity which makes your brain believe you’re focusing on an object at a distance. Short-sighted people will need glasses. More information is available the FAQ on our website (http://www.oculusvr.com/faq/).

“…but it is for you giving only a very few updates on the status first and then, almost before first deadline, you say "oh sorry, just another 4 (!) months"
@Krom – We’re sincerely sorry about shifting the delivery date . We needed all the details before we could provide an accurate update, that way everyone would know when to expect their kit. We’ll continue doing our best to get everyone’s developer kits out as fast as possible!

Superbacker

im confused about the tracking, he turns his head a lot but the game only responds it seems in a small angle. is this the expected functionality? i was hoping more of a 1-to-1 relationship regarding head movements.
im really hoping this is just a coding issue and not an inherent limitation of the device, as i have a really specific functionality in mind.

The lack of updates and the delayed delivery dates are pretty disappointing. Not being able to deliver what you promised right from the start causes me some concern. I hope things go smoothly from here on. And personally, I don't care that others "have been waiting decades..." I made the investment, I expected it to be honored when promised. Hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Thanks for the update Palmer. Glad we've now got a firm release date to work with. I'm really disappointed with the negative attitudes in the comments. Many of us have been waiting decades for a high quality (near) consumer level VR headset we can develop on and you've delivered.

Honestly, I think the delay is fine. With all the changes that need to be taken into account. I am just happy the project is still on track. Hell, if I get my hands on a convincing VR experience I have no problem waiting for another year. (Though I'd rather not, as I am way too excited.)

Also @Palmer, with the screen being bigger, does that mean you need more distortion or less ? Am I correct to assume the FOV may even benefit from this ?

@MichaelH: 70 days is not at all unusual for making a mold, especially one as large and complex as the Rift needs. New Year celebrations last up to three weeks, and it takes time both to wind down the factory and to spin it back up. We are estimating on the conservative side to make sure there is enough time for everything to go down smoothly. We address the kits in another post, I will paste it here for you:

"The unassembled kit rewards will ship before everyone else (along with the handful of pre-Kickstarter orders from MTBS3D). More details later as they're nailed down. For everyone else, we'll ship kits out as quickly as we receive them from the factory. This depends on how many we receive in the first shipment (though we *expect* more than 3,000)."

@Sauli: We have played a lot with weight distribution. You will notice that it has an optional strap that goes over the head, it gets rid of a lot of pressure.

The cable between the box and the HMD is not extendable, the signal degrades as the cable gets longer. What you could do, though, is wear the control box on your belt and run a long HDMI and power tether to that. Another solution would be to use something like the Asus WiCast and a battery pack for wireless operation.

It is a bit concerning that you have 70 days for machining steel injection molds (!!) and 4 weeks for a holiday that is 7 days. These are unusual numbers to attach.

A question about the video: the change in angle seems very small, but he is moving his head around quite a bit. This seems at odds with the sort of things we saw in the Doom 3 demos. Is this what we should expect to be how the tracking is implemented?

Last, what of the un-assembled prototypes? You really need to address this.

Hey Palmer, could you perhaps comment on the issue of pixel density on the new 7 inch screen ? It has the same resolution as the previous 5 inch screen , does that mean that due to the larger size of the new screen the perceived resolution will be lower than on the 5 inch screen ?

@Ryan McClelland: That company does aluminum molds, not steel. They are not suitable for high precision devices, and have a pretty short lifespan. Doing a proper steel mold is the best way to do it, and we want to do it right, not cut corners to save a few weeks.

-The display is 1280x800, so 640x800 per eye. Using 1080p panels would give us 960x1080 per eye. Some people imagine it would be easy to just upgrade the Rift to use the 5" 1080p panels on the market, but this is simply not the case. They are smaller than we need, would result in a lower field of view, they are exclusive to a handful of very large companies. We can’t even buy them right now! They are also very expensive (Too expensive to put in a $300 device with free shipping, those new 1080p phones cost twice as much!), and would require a new control board, new optics, and a new case; In short, an entirely new device.

-Yes, we anticipated some kind of schedule change in about late October. We could have had manufacturing running by now, but we had to delay so we could make sure that everything worked perfectly.

Yes, we anticipated there might be a schedule change once we were deep in the process with the factory, but we had no details on whether we’d be ahead or behind schedule until very recently. It’s impossible to have an accurate manufacturing timeline until the factory knows every last detail.

We did not want to announce a delay without being able to give accurate dates. It would have been bad to announce a delay based on our best guess, then find out that Chinese New Year would push us back even further!

Tyler Griesinger:
No it won't ,None of my friends know or care what oculus is .And they are all hardcore gamers.But yes,there is a sale link in taobao.but they are just reselling from here.And two months passed.0 deal

Most every company I know that uses China to manufacture their products has counterfeits being made within a few months. I knew it is a general statement and not all Chinese companies will make counterfeits but...

Then again maybe that's what we want is prototypes all over Chinese wholesale websites like aliexpress and alibaba...

70 days for injection molded parts? This company can do it in 15 days or less. I use them regularly.
www.protomold.comThey are fantastically fast and cheap because the molds are developed by algorithms rather than manually. Plus you don't have to travel to China.

Maybe they are more expensive than Chinese manufactures, but for this small batch they should be very competitive.

Meh. It's not that there is a delay, one could have expected that, but it is for you giving only a very few updates on the status first and then, almost before first deadline, you say "oh sorry, just another 4 (!) months". That's simply not cool. :(

Hope you guys at Oculus pay heed to the needs of those of your users that have bad eyesight and need glasses - those of us with near-sightedness are probably in the clear, but those with farsightedness might require room for their glasses inside the visor if you don't come up with a more clever solution (contact lenses are of course an alternate option, but not everyone can wear them).

Superbacker

Aww, bummed, but I guess that's to be expected. The prototype's a little bit on the chunky side too, but I'm excited for the better screen - although is that the same resolution on a larger panel? That makes me a little bit worried about pixel pitch. Also, how much space is there in the device for glasses? The head-on picture is a bit difficult to gauge depth.

On the SDK and software side of things, any idea when an announcement might come out about that? I'd still like to start messing with the software over the holidays and maybe even play some Doom 3? Also, for all the games that claim to be launching Oculus-ready, will there be a provision to tape tablets to our faces to get a sneak peek at VR?

Yes, I was a bit taken back by them saying "We are happy to...". I don't mind the delay (ish), and a very professionally made update to help illustrate why. But a lot of people have contributed to this on the expectations of a December delivery so there should at the very least been an apology and the timing is very last minute on this update, how about keeping people a bit more in the loop on these things as I'm sure it wasn't today or yesterday most of this was being realised!

Looking forward to this project being a success for all and so hope all goes well, just please communicate a little better with the community who backed you!

I agree that the wording "We are happy to.." is not the best. It should be "I am sorry to..". Regardless of what they teach in Marketing schools, when you make a promise and don't deliver, you should apologize, instead of pretending that there was not an announced date.

Other than that, I think the delay was to be expected and it is perfectly fine.
Keep up the good work!

The popularity of this project has turned an initial developer release into an alpha consumer release. The screen shots of the displays look a lot better then what I was expecting in the initial delivery timeline. Looking forward to the dev release ....

I must say, while I am really excited about the oculus rift, this update concerns me a little. It seems that it must have been clear a while ago that the dev kits wouldn't be ready by december. Clearly, there were some miscalculations about how fast, those kits can be developed. Though I am quite surprised to learn that the screen wasn't actually available. Anyhow, I actually did not expect to receive the dev kit in december, as I thought the timeline was unrealistic. To be fair, it is a very young crew putting these things together and we can't expect a flawless release here. But, it would have been nice to learn about it earlier. Luckily this changes nothing for my own timelines, as I hadn't planed starting to develop for this thing until mid-next year. I am cautiously optimistic that I may receive a dev kit by june, but will look for an alternative now just in case. I wish oculus all the luck in the world, but please let your backers know about changes ahead of time, not about a week before people start wondering about tracking numbers for their shipments. We are not consumers, but mostly developers. I am sure most of us prefer the cold hard truth instead of wishful thinking :)